Red X
by Tjin
Summary: On Halloween Xander dresses as a Robin Knock-off costume that will change his life forever.


Xander slipped the mask in place and checked himself out in the mirror. Ethan had sold him the costume at a discount price as nobody seemed to know who or what the costume was. Some sort of alternate Robin costume, Ethan had explained as he loaded up the costume and sent Xander on his way. One good thing about it was that it fit, and at fifteen dollars it was a steal.

Smiling to himself, Xander slipped past his unconscious father and out into the early evening.

Halloween was going to be a blast.

Xynothium was not an element that existed in the modern world. The super element was a function of the higher dimensional physics found in a world with solar powered aliens and mad genius villains. To transfer such an element to a lower energy dimension would take the energy of a god to make it work.

Fortunately for all involved, just such a being iwas/i involved.

Unfortunately for one young man, that much energy being forced through him would make changes to his body that even the Chaos god would not predict. Should he care to try, that is.

As the energy pulse swept through the small town the young, red dressed teen collapsed to the ground screaming. For several minutes it continued as the energy needed to create the greater element poured through the costume and the young man inside.

After the pain stopped the young man took a slow, shuddering breath and tried to force his muscles to obey. In all his years, nothing had ever quite hurt that much. Even his time under the tender mercies of DeathStroke the Terminator had never ended with quite this much pain.

Forcing himself to his knees, the thief known as Red X shuddered before shoving the pain away. Taking a moment to catch his breath and look around, he finally noticed the rampaging monsters running back and forth causing chaos in the small suburban area he found himself in. In moments the mind that had originally drawn Slade's attention before the mercenary had abandoned him in favor of the young superhero as his successor, Red X gathered the available data and quickly came to a conclusion.

"XANDER!"

Turning to the oncoming redhead, X waved off her comments before she could get started. "I'm not him sweetness, I seem to be caught up in whatever happens to be going on around here." The Thief said before forcing himself to his feet. "I would recommend you get to safety…" he trailed off as the redhead waved her hand through his chest before shrugging. "But what do I know," he finished before taking another look at the incorporeal teen. "So, a ghost, hmmm…" he said taking in the short skirt and tight shirt the redhead was wearing and allowing himself a smile under the helmet.

Crossing her arms to cover her chest, Willow tried to ignore the almost physical impact of his stare and she was surprised at the amount of blush she could manage without a body. Her uncomfortable moment was broken by a frantic scream that brought her back to the moment, "BUFFY!"

In a flicker of movement the costumed criminal disappeared. In the distance the scream hit a new and painful pitch before cutting off and restarting as the two reappeared in front of her, the brunette trailed off for a moment as she stared at the dark dressed young man that had rescued her from the demon as her somewhat limited mental capacity finally grasped on to the single logical explanation.

"SORECERER!" the lady shrieked in panic before turning and running headfirst through the redhead, needless to say the sudden addition of the undead did little to calm the noble woman down.

Looking at the glare she could feel coming from beneath the mask, Willow shrugged helplessly. "She really is our friend," she explained before the dark clad teen flickered again. This time there was a short shriek that was cut off by a muffled gag and the two returned, a furious Buffy scraping futilely at the bright red X covering her mouth.

"This is why I don't have friends," Red X explained before dropping the troublesome female to the pavement, "Now that I have your friend, let's get you somewhere safe and I'll go deal with this," he waved his hand to indicate the general kerfuffle around them.

Blinking at that, Willow cocked her head to the side in confusion "Y-you know what's going on?"

"Yep, after dealing with Mumbo Jumbo a couple of times I made sure to brush up on magical theory and picked up a few things that should help." He explained as he threw the struggling girl over his shoulder and made his way towards the nearest house.

Watching him for a moment, Willow finally chased after him. "Who ARE you?" She demanded as the masked teen turned toward her with a look.

"Hmmmm… Interesting question; black costume, mask, utility belt, I must be Batman." He said with a hint of sarcasm as Willow just stared.

"B-but, you… you have a big red X on your mask," Willow explained in confusion before the teen continued on his way towards the house.

"Well then I guess I'm Red X."

Angel entered the house in a frantic search for Buffy. Running through the kitchen and dining room, he entered the living room and blinked at the two girls whispering to each other on the couch. As he entered, Angel took a moment to confirm Willow and Cordelia were alright before looking around the living room, he could smell Buffy nearby, but where was she?

Above him the muffled and bound Lady Elizabeth struggled against the bright red X's that kept her stuck to the ceiling where the evil sorcerer had bound her.

Teleporting around the town, Red X checked the energy readings carefully. Originally he had thought he had something near the high school, but the energy signature was off. Porting into area where the energy was most pervasive, Red X looked around the small street and groaned at the rather gaudy Halloween costume store. It was practically radiating the magical signature that was covering everything he owned as well as most of the more effected members of the small town.

Breaking in was almost pathetically easy for the super thief, the lock barely even giving him pause as he entered the store and made his way towards the back room where his 'borrowed' gadgets warned him the influx of energy was coming from.

Looking around, he snorted at the burned out corpse of the one most likely responsible before focusing on the glowing bust. "Hmmm, cheap costumes and gaudy jewelry surrounding a second century bust of the Roman god Janus, god of portals, changes, chaos and the new year." Tapping his mask as if thinking hard for a moment, "Ohh, what could possibly be the focus of the spell?" He then prepared a series of explosive X's to deal with the problem.

"I wouldn't."

Turning towards the voice, Red X was mildly surprised, to say the least, at the two faced man leaning casually against the wall. Taking a moment to look around the man at the other face on the back of his head before shrugging the issue off, Red X decided he had met weirder in his adventures against the Teen Titans. "And why not? The way it normally works is you break the focus and the spell ends. Easy."

Nodding at that, Janus pushed himself off the wall and walked towards the bust, still going for casual. "Usually that is so, but I had to break some rules to pull you across, rules that I have been informed were not meant to be broken."

"Because of me?" Red X pointed a thumb towards the X on his chest in confusion "What's so special about me? I'm just a thief."

"Perhaps, but the addition of Xynothium to your suit has had unforeseen consequences. Consequences that I am responsible for," Janus explained as he knelt by the still smoking remains of his most promising acolyte in the modern age.

"So what, you're going to kill me?" the thief asked as he prepared to battle what he could only assume was a god.

Chuckling at the boy's preparations the elder god simply shook his head "No no, that won't work. The Xynothium will still be here and still be an issue. I can't simply move you across to a hell dimension either," the god semi explained before his other side whispered an interesting idea. "Yes, yes that should work quiet well. A simple transference of energy states should work easily enough and put him in just the right place to add a little spice to your home dimension."

The chaos god sighed happily as Red X got a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Whatever the god had planned, was not going to end well for him, he was sure of it.

As the spell ended, the rest of the town attempted to move on with their lives; Buffy struggled to get down from the ceiling, Angel struggled not to laugh as his love interest ripped the Red X off of her face, Cordelia struggled to understand her attraction to the undead, Willow struggled to get the sheet off and Giles struggled to contain a yawn before he returned to indexing the cards.

The day after, the Mayor would struggle to contain the two dead bodies found at Ethan's costume shop.

In an alleyway in the lower section of Jump City Xander groaned as he sat up, rubbing the back of his head he blinked. Across from him, the inverse of his own costume did the same, for a moment, the two looked at each other before Red X smiled at the red costume with a Black X adorning the chest and mask opposite his own.

In a large, T shaped building in Jump City Bay, a two faced god explained what was happening to the resident magical expert.

It was looking to be an interesting day all around.


End file.
